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The saga of the name Willsombe begins among the Viking settlers who arrived in Scotland in the medieval era. The name Willsombe is derived from the personal name William. The name literally was derived from the patronymic expression son of William or son of Wil. 1
"The family are said to be descended from a Prince of Denmark, and were established at a very remote period in the Orkney islands, intermarrying with the clans of Monro, and others. After a long continuance in the north, alliances taking place with some of the principal Lowland families, the Wilsons moved southward. " 2
The surname Willsombe was first found in Berwickshire an ancient county of Scotland, presently part of the Scottish Borders Council Area, located in the eastern part of the Borders Region of Scotland, where John Wulson was a merchant in the service of Sir John of Montgomery in 1405. Michael Wilsoun was Burgess of Irvine in 1418, and John Wilson was Burgess of Berwick in 1467. 1
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Willsombe research. Another 237 words (17 lines of text) covering the years 1563, 1567, 1603, 1662, 1667, 1680, 1685, 1704, 1750 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Willsombe History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Contemporary spellings of ancient Scottish names often bear little resemblance to the original recorded versions. These spelling variations result from the fact that medieval scribes spelled words and names alike according to their sounds. Willsombe has been spelled Wilson, Willson, Wilsone, Wulson, Wilsoun and others.
Notable amongst the Clan from early times was Margaret Wilson (died 1685), one of the Wigton martyrs, a young Scottish Covenanter from Wigtownshire executed by drowning for refusing to swear an oath declaring James VII; and John Willison (1680-1750), an evangelical minister of the Church of Scotland and a writer of Christian literature.
Margaret Wilson (1667-1685), the 'martyr of the Solway,' and the eldest daughter of Gilbert Wilson (d. 1704), a yeoman of Penninghame, Wigtownshire, was born at Glenvernock in that parish in 1667. " Though her parents conformed to episcopacy, Margaret and her younger sister Agnes refused to do so. On...
Another 124 words (9 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Willsombe Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Another 90 words (6 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
The colonies on the fertile east coast of North America soon had many farms run by Scots. These hardy settlers provided a backbone for the great nations of the United States and Canada that would emerge in the next centuries. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Scottish name Willsombe or a variant listed above, including: John Wilson, who settled in Virginia in 1623; Christopher Wilson, a Scotch prisoner sent to Boston in 1651; Andrew Wilson, who arrived in New England in 1651.